


In Chains

by fallenandinlovewithhumanity



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Cas is under the attack dog spell, Dean is dealing with Emotions, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Fluffy Ending, M/M, Sam is a Good Brother, sorta canon compliant?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-01
Updated: 2015-11-01
Packaged: 2018-04-29 11:06:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5125184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallenandinlovewithhumanity/pseuds/fallenandinlovewithhumanity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was worse than seeing Cas everywhere he looked after Purgatory. This made Dean want to turn tail and drink a liquor store to forget about it. He looked to Sam as if to get reassurance that it was in fact real that Cas really lay five feet in front of them breathing sporadically. Sam looked down at Cas and immediately moved to help Cas sit up.  Dean breathed out, it was real. SHIT. It was real.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Chains

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoy it.

Dean looked around as he walked back to the bunker for the first time. He saw the books, his records, his clothes scattered on the floor. The only difference was that the blood he spilled was now wiped away. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the blade glowing in the dim fluorescent light, a book placed next to it, with a hole in the center. His throat dried as he stepped over each book on the floor, carefully maneuvering around everything as the sound of movement startled both him and Sam. Behind the mountain of books lay Cas, bloody.

Dean wanted to say sorry he really did, but when he saw Cas bloody on the same ground he left him, the words seemed to escape. He couldn't move, what he was seeing had to be a vision some sort of recurring nightmare, only he wasn't asleep. This was worse than seeing Cas everywhere he looked after Purgatory. This made Dean want to turn tail and drink a liquor store to forget about it. He looked to Sam as if to get reassurance that it was in fact real that Cas really lay five feet in front of them breathing sporadically. Sam looked down at Cas and immediately moved to help Cas sit up.  Dean breathed out, it was real. SHIT. It was real. The only words to escape his lips that day were, "I'm going to kill that bitch."

Castiel wasn’t okay, to say the least. His head was bursting, his grace was whirling inside of him trying to escape the grasp of the spell. He doesn’t know how he got here or how he ended up in the spot he once was in. As he lay there, his labored breathing was the only thing he could hear, until there were footsteps and a door slamming. He tried to move, to cover himself or at least get out of the light, but it was useless, he wanted to pass out. He saw a pair of bowlegs walking towards him. Dean, Cas wanted to tell him that he was forgiven from the moment it happened. But he never got the chance. He wanted to let Dean know that even being seconds away from death, he still saw the good in him. However, on the verge of unconsciousness, his first words day that were " Help me."

When Cas woke up the next morning in a bed, he was confused. He did not remember changing into sweats and old t-shirt. He was confused as to how he got into a bed. He shifts up and tries to move off the bed, the bed rattles as he gets pulled back. Handcuffs. He moves again towards the bed and leans back on the wall behind him. The doorknob jiggles and he sits up. Dean enters the room with a tray. On the tray a sandwich, a small pudding cup, a pill bottle and a glass of water.

"Hey. How'ya feeling?"  
  
"Like someone put me in a blender and hit puree."  
  
Dean smiles and lays the tray on the nightstand next to Cas. Dean turns to leave and opens the door and starts to walk out, as he closes the door, Cas calls out to him.  
  
"Dean..."  
  
Dean steps back into the room and turns to face Cas.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"This isn't your fault you know that don't you?."  
  
Dean stills and turns back to leave the room. Dean closes the door behind him. He leans against the door for a moment.  
  
"Yes, it is."  
  
Sam turns the corners to the hallway. Dean stands up and wipes his eyes. Sam stops.  
  
"Are you okay?"  
  
Dean glares at him.  
  
"Yes, mom I'm fine."  
  
Sam stares at him then at the room Cas is in for a minute.  
  
"Dammit Sam, what?"

“Is there something you aren’t telling me about you and Cas?”

“What do you mean?”

Sam looks at him, and runs a hand through his own hair.

“I don’t know man, you usually run up to Cas as soon as he gets hurt, but you kinda just froze this time.”

Dean opens his mouth and closes it again.

“I- ahh, I fucked up again Sam, okay.”

“How did you ‘fuck up’ Dean, cause we all have fucked up pretty badly in the past.”

Dean walks back and forth. He stops in front of Sam and brings his hand to his face. He looks up at Sam.

“I almost killed him. When the Stynes were here, I almost killed Cas, Sammy. I- hurt him.”

Sam looks shocked but then slowly puts his arms around Dean. Dean sinks into Sam’s embrace and hugs back.

“It wasn’t you Dean, you can’t blame yourself. Knowing Cas, he doesn’t blame you either.”

Sam lets his brother go.

“Sam… It wasn’t like I just punched the guy, I had an angel blade in my hand ready to strike. I almost killed him.””

“But you didn’t, do you know what stopped you?”

Dean turned away from Sam and wiped his eyes.

“He did. He- grabbed my wrist the way I grabbed his and I remembered how it felt being on the opposite end of it.” 

"Dean, go in there and maybe you know talk to him. He needs you...you kinda just need each other. Especially right now."  
  
Dean closes his eyes for a moment and starts pacing the hall, he faces away from Sam and punches the wall.   
  
"And say what Sam, huh? Say what...ohh sorry for almost killing you? Sorry for leaving without a fucking word..."  
  
Sam reaches for his pocket and pulls out a set of keys. He turns the knob and steps inside the room quietly, Dean covers his face with his hands. He leans against the wall, staring at the chipped paint of one of the corners.  
  
"You know, sorry for trying to off myself because I couldn't face the damn guilt of hurting you? What do I say Sammy, cause nothing seems like enough."  
  
Dean turns back around, Sam is nowhere to be seen and Cas is standing at the doorway, a pair of smaller cuffs on his hands.  
  
"Cas-"  
  
"Sam let me out."  
  
"Dammit Sam! Did you hear any-"  
  
"Dean, I forgave you the moment you slammed that blade into the book beside me."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Do you want the long version or the short version?"  
  
"Why on Earth would you forgive me? I almost killed you!"  
  
"As if it hasn't happened the other way around, why did you forgive me?"  
  
Dean glares at Cas, he huffs and opens his mouth to speak but then closes it again.  
  
"That's different."  
  
"How?"  
  
"It just is Cas, you were controlled by Naomi, I did it all of this crap on my own."  
  
Cas leans against the now closed bedroom door and glares at Dean as he paces the hallway.  
  
"You were under the influence of the Mark of Cain."  
  
"That I got out of my own piss poor choices."  
  
"I can't argue that."  
  
Dean tries to laugh and looks at Cas, tears forming in his eyes. He walks up to Cas, now sitting under the doorway and sat opposite him. He looks down at the ground.  
  
"Both."  
  
"What?"  
  
"You asked if I wanted the short or long version. I want both."  
  
Cas shifts and scoots closer to Dean.  
  
"Short version, I'm an idiot or idgit as Bobby called it."  
  
Dean scoffs.  
  
"Long version?"  
  
"Because we're family, because I told you that I would stay by your side no matter what happens, and I meant every word of that. Because when the situation was reversed you held onto me and told me something, you told me something that broke through the powers of heaven and allowed me to stop and heal you. I never got to say it back. I forgive you because to put it in your own words I rather have you cursed or not, and if your self-loathing, self-sacrificing, stubborn ass can't comprehend that then I don't know what to tell you."  
  
Dean stares at Cas with a blank expression. Dean's throat went dry. He didn't expect Cas to forgive him, let alone tell him all this. He expected Cas to hate him, to tell him that he wanted nothing to do with him, he expects him to be angry with him at least. Hell he wanted Cas to let him have it, to yell at him. He stares at Cas who is looking at him with such hope in his eyes. After all this and he still sees good in me. Cas reaches for Dean's hand and smiles at him. He breaks into a small smile.  
  
"I'm not that stubborn."  
  
Cas laughs.  
  
"If I remember correctly you and your brother ripped up God's plan by being stubborn enough to say no to being vessels. Sounds pretty stubborn to me."  
  
"Can't argue with that."  
  
Dean shrugs. He moves closer to Cas and grabs Cas' hands. He looks down at them.  
  
"I'm sorry about the chains."  
  
"It's for the protection of both you and Sam, I would have done it anyway."  
  
Cas intertwines his fingers with Dean.  Dean looks up and makes eye contact with Cas. His eyes glisten with the tears that formed earlier.  
  
"Dean, I forgave you and you know this. Please forgive yourself so we can all get past this."  
  
Dean runs his thumb over the side of Cas' hand.   
  
"It's not that easy."  
  
"Don't you think I know that? I almost killed you, I broke Sam's wall, I killed thousands of my own kind, I did things that I will never be able to forget. But I am attempting to redeem myself and if I am worth something in your eyes, in Sam's eyes then I feel it's worthwhile to at least try and forgive myself."  
  
"Cas, I killed countless people, I almost killed you, and I chased around Sammy with a hammer. You were trying to do the right thing, I was a demon and didn’t care who got hurt as long as I got to howl at the moon."  
  
Cas lifts his hands up, and cups Dean's face, the chain of the handcuffs hitting Dean's chin.  
  
"You do realize I am in chains, I am dangerous and under the influence of an attack dog spell, which could act up any second. Do you really think degrading yourself and trying to convince me that the man that I gripped tight and raised from perdition isn't worth saving is truly a good idea?"

Dean laughs. Cas wipes the tears from Dean’s eyes.

"Yeah, you're probably right."

“Yes, I am.”

“So what was that thing you never got to say back?”

Cas smiles at him and pushes his face away.

“If you don’t know by now then you truly are an idiot.”

“I just want to hear it.”

Cas rolls his eyes and stands up, reaching his hands out to Dean, who takes them and stands with him.

“I need you, Dean.”

Dean smiles and hugs Cas, Cas remains still, the handcuffs preventing him from moving too much.

“I need you too Cas.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave comment, questions, anything. Tell me what you thought about it.


End file.
